Wool Carder Bee Anthidium manicatum (Linnaeus, 1758) 
Despite being widespread and well recorded over most of England and lowland Wales, Nottinghamshire has very few records of this large and distinctive solitary Bee, but it is certainly increasing its UK and Nottinghamshire range. It derives its common name from its habit of scraping the hairs off the leaves of plants such as Lambs-ear Stachys byzantina, which it uses to line the cells of its nest.

Like other Megachile species, the nests are built inside natural holes, hollow canes and artificial bee houses etc. A. manicatum really should be more commonly recorded in Nottinghamshire, but the recording of Hymenoptera in Nottinghamshire continues to be relatively little. Grateful thanks go to David Shaw (upper photographs) Duncan Lyon (middle photographs) and Sandra Parkin (lower photographs) for kindly providing their photographs to illustrate this species.
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Mating Anthidium manicatum and female collecting nest material from underside of Stachys byzantina leaf.
 
 
Nottinghamshire (VC56) distribution of Anthidium manicatum 
 
 
 
 
The records for the Nottinghamshire distribution map are currently provided by the following contributors - Nottingham City Council. Phil Lee. Adrian Dutton. David Shaw. Duncan Lyon. Sandra Parkin. Nick and Samantha Brownley. Brian Wetton.

You can contribute your own records to help us gain an accurate status of this species in Nottinghamshire. Send an Excel spreadsheet of your records via the 'contact us' link at the top of the homepage.

Updated November 2022

copyright © Trevor and Dilys Pendleton (www.eakringbirds.com) . .
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